Plastics business acquires Czech design firm

West Yorkshire plastics firm Carclo, which supplies the supercar market as well as medical, optics and aerospace industries, has acquired a Czech business, FLTC.

The £900,000 (27m Czech Korunas) acquisition also includes a further £500,000 based on performance criteria. Chief executive Chris Malley said that they acquired the firm as UK resources in terms of talent were limited.

FLTC is an independent automotive LED lighting design company based in Ostrava, Czech Republic and employs 35 designers, electronics and CAD engineers.

Carclo subsidiary Wipac has been a customer of the firm for the last three years, accounting for a third of FLTC’s sales. It will be integrated into the Wipac business.

For the year to December 2016, FLTC reported unaudited turnover of CZK49.2 m (around £1.58m) and unaudited profit before tax of CZK 11.5 million (approximately £380,000).

Carclo said it expects the acquisition of FLTC to result in a”modest improvement” in group profitability in the first full year, and that it will act as a further catalyst for Wipac’s growth strategy.

The Ossett-based company said it expected full year results to be in line with expectations following the acquisition.

Chris Malley, chief executive of the Company, said: “The acquisition of FLTC adds significant skills and capabilities to our Wipac business and will provide us with both an immediate step up in design capability as well as a base to further expand our design resources in the Czech Republic.

“Whilst we have been expanding our UK based talent pool considerably over the last few years through a combination of recruitment and training, the rate of growth that we project at Wipac would have been constrained by the level of available UK resources.

“We also believe that having a footprint in continental Europe, and specifically in the heart of the Czech Republic’s automotive industry, will place us in an excellent position to further grow our Wipac brand.”